@thedisasterautist If you get a chance, I'd 100% recommend making a detour to Brodhead, WI. There's a cheese/dairy there called Decatur Dairy, and they have awesome (award-winning) baby swiss, fresh cheese curds, funky bleu cheese, etc. My fav is the Muenster - I slice it thick and make grilled cheese with it or the Butterkase. YUM.
Yes, I have driven 6 hours one way from St Louis to get $60 of cheese from them. Worth it.
@thedisasterautist LOL. wow. Decatur is a co-op! I'found them back in....2006, I think. Back then, the store was a little room right off the working area, and the fresh curds were in plastic baggies with twist tie tops! Literally made the day before.
The gal there asked me if I had been to Monroe, and told me to go try Baumgardner's in the town square. I later found out it'd been on "The Best Of" on Food Network. I got a Havarti on pumpernickel, warmed. Best cheese sammich I'd ever had.
@thedisasterautist PS: Monroe is where The Swiss Colony is based. Remember the mail order catalogs for meat and cheese? That's them.
@kismatt: I have a WI dairy I stop by on the road to Darwin, MN, and the place is a small store attached to a family dairy. I was curious back in 2013 and stopped in, and it changed my life. It's in DeForest, off of I-90.
My first visit I spent nearly $200. LOL